quick and easy ideas for desserts

I'm attending a potluck tomorrow and have posted some ideas on quick  and cheap desserts on my other blog ohsweetserenity.

How I try to live frugally

I am pretty frugal for the most part. I hate to buy things without a coupon. If I don't have a coupon, it better be on sale. When it's on sale, I like to stock up, and if I have a coupon for it, it's even better.

Clothing
The best time I like to shop for clothing is right now. A few days before Thanksgiving and the weeks leading to new years. I know buying things second hand will save you even more. But, it's something I'm not ready to try yet. So, I'll buy clothing, shoes and bags online when it's on super sale and with free shipping.
I got this Tory Burch bag for $266 after tax, originally $435 from Bloomingdales.

It was on sale and on top of that they were having 20% off  on selected items. I used my Discover card and got back $24.5, this offsets the tax of $23.14. When you go through Discover's link to shop at Bloomingdales, you get 10% back. It's up from the usual 5% because of the holidays.


Housing 
I'm fortunate that my parents have as big enough house for all my siblings and our spouses to live in.  This allows us to save money to eventually buy our own home. The few hundred dollars that we paid in rent to my parents would have just gotten us a room if we rent else where. We get a master bed room with the bathroom and a walk-in closet, our own little kitchen and a room for storage. It's good enough for us.  With our income, we can go out and get our "own little place." But, the amount we have to pay in rent is going to cost about $1200-$1400. No thanks!

Eating out 
You can have a nice meal with coupons. My favorite chain restaurant, Elephant Bar, has coupons. I love Souplantation, they also have coupons. Black Angus has a really nice coupon for a full meal for $40. It has one appetizer, 2 entree and a dessert. The appetizer includes their sampler, it's huge. We often go with my brother and his girlfriend and we just share that deal. It's $40 for 4 people, not bad right?
Who says you have to eat a meal when you go out? Go have a coffee or just desserts. In Southern California, there are so many boba places. You can get a drink with a basket of sweet potatoes fries for about $8.  We get our cravings satisfied and we didn't break bank. To save even more, go to discount gift card sites to buy gift cards for your favorite restaurant. Most restaurant gift cards are at least 10% off. My favorite site to search for gift cards is giftcardgranny.com. Don't forget, there is always happy hours!

The sampler from Black Angus. 

Cleaning
My husband uses a re-washable mop to clean our bedroom floor, it's hard wood. I use Swifter Sweeper to clean the kitchen tiles. I know he's the more environmental one here. But the Swifter Sweeper is so convenient. I, of course, will only buy the refills when it's on sale or with a coupon.
When it comes to washing dishes, I like to put the dirty dishes in one side of the sink and move it to another as I scrub them. Then, I rinse with the water running over the scrubs dishes so I would use less water

That's all for now.... let me know how you save or try to live frugally.

Couponing at Target

I had a good shopping trip at Target. Since the holidays are coming, many food items are going on sale.
Today I picked up some stables. All these items in the picture came to a total of $45 but I only paid $26.
This a mixture of combing sales with a coupon, manufacturer's coupons with the store coupons and BOGO coupons. The only thing I didn't have a coupon for was the toothpaste, but that was on sale for $2.50. I downloaded the Cartwheel app and that saved me a little bit of money too.

Crisco-$3 got $1 off target coupon- I don't see it on their website anymore.
Beneful dog snacks- BOGO coupon 11/17 Smartsource, if you don't subscribe to a sunday paper then just go to Coupons.com, although they don't have a BOGO offer, but there are other coupons which can still save you some money .
Market Pantry pasta- On sale for $1/each, had Target coupon for $1 off of three pastas.
Ragu pasta sauce- Regular price for $1.67 but the 11/17 Smartsouce had coupon for buy two get one cheese sauce free.
Gevalia coffee- I love their coffee,  on clearance for $6.48 had printable for $1.50/1.
Market Pantry cheese- on sale for $2/each. target coupon for $1.25/3. We eat a lot of cheese.
Market Pantry pasta sauce- on sale for $1/each. I had a Target coupon for $1/2.
Coffee-mate liquid creamers-found a great coupon idea here. Basically, I used a Target coupon for $1/3 and 3 $1 off manufacturer's coupon.

How much grocery $14.50 buys

So I live in Southern California. We don't get our coupons doubled and sometimes, I don't think we get any decent coupons.  So extreme couponing will not happen here. I guess that's what we have to trade off for the abundance of sunny days.
I frequent Fresh and Easy for my groceries. I love the store, but they don't accept manufacturer's coupons. Once in a while, they'll give me these "made for me coupons" for things I buy the most. Yes, I know, they keep a data on me. And weekly,, they'll have store coupons for $5/25 or $10/50, which helps if I match it up with the store sales.
Here is what I got with $14.50 yesterday. Got two bags of squash for 62 cents each because it reached the sell by date. The quality is still good.

I have store coupons for the butter-60 cents/one and peppers- 30 cents/one
The tomatoes, peppers and onions are part of their 98cent everyday deals.
 The 18 count large eggs were 2/$5, Ralph's has it for $3.19 on the 18 counts. So, I think i'm getting a pretty good deal.
Overall, this is a pretty good deal for me.

How I budget

The only way you can save money is to live below your means. If you find yourself coming out short every month then you really need to write everything down and evaluate where you can cut back.

I'm still working on my budget, but I have most of everything down.
I start with my income, this is money that comes in. I have a house that I'm renting out, so I make a little bit of money from it.

Income

Work

Rental

Then I make a list of the fix expenses. IRA is in the because it automatically takes the money from my bank account and to me anything that leaves my checking counts as a expense, but that's just me.

Fixed

Rent

IRA

Phone Bill

Life Insurance

Fix-Variable. These are the areas that I need to spend money on every month, but the amount varies a bit month to month. Phone bill appears here too because I have the T-mobile $30/month unlimited internet and text with 100 minute plan. This is for those times when I go over those 100 mins.

Fix-Variable

Gas

food

Phone bill

dog

household

Variable- this is the area where you can absolutely cut off if you need to save money. If you have money left over after paying your bills and making allocations to your savings, have a little budget for fun. 

Variable

entertainment

Clothes

eating out

Annual expenses- Don't forget about this, I list my annual expenses and divided into 12, then save that amount into an account every month under Misc expenses. 

Annual expense

car Insurance

Car registration

AAA

Savings- If you don't have 6-8 months of living expenses then you need to cut off some expenses to save as quickly as possible for emergences. You see the account for Aunt? I took a personal loan from my aunt when I bought the house. I'm planning to save up and pay her back annually with a chunk of money

Mandatory saving

Emergency

vacation

misc

aunt

Gifts

House and Baby

I believe debt is a burden. I don't like to owe money (mortgage doesn't count).  I carried a balance with Discover Card(best credit card ever) for the past 5 years. But, do as I say, not as I do. The only reason I can afford to carry a balance was because I keep asking for 0% interest on my balance.  I don't ever recommend carrying a balance. 

This is the budget that works for me. I hope this gives you an idea how to set it up. 

Last night's dinner

We've been eating a lot of pasta. What can I say, it's really yummy. But to make up for the guilt I have for eating so much carbs, I eat a lot of veggies with it. 

Pasta Sauce: 

1 cup of beef, half of an onion ( thinly sliced) and about 1 cup of sliced mushrooms. Brown the meat with garlic then add the onions and mushrooms. Once cooked, add a can of cream of mushroom and one jar of your favorite Alfredo sauce. Let it simmer for a few mins, stir occasionally. 

Veggies: Pea sprouts, husband loves it. Asparagus, it was only sale, 2/$4 and I had a coupon for 50 cents off of one. 

Reasons why I'm keeping my old car

My parents were so generous as to give me a new car for my 21st birthday. It was just a normal Camry sedan. They were happy to be able to give me such a grand gift, and I was grateful. After the wedding, I felt like I needed a fresh start with a new car. My husband is obsess with Subarus and got me to want one. He sold his 2011Honda Civic and got a 2009 Subaru Outback and he couldn't be happier. However, after doing our budget and finding out how much we needed to save for our goals, it was just not possible.

 My Camry is hitting 100k miles soon. What a milestone! I had a few things changed, timing belts, water pump, axle, etc. I still need to work on the steering column, but it'll drive well for another few months. There is no reason for me get a new car, except for wanting to keep up with the Joneses. Yes, I admit, that's not being frugal. 

Camrys are known for their reliability and longevity. It's driving very well. I save a lot of money, too. My registration is coming due and it's only $112. My comprehensive insurance is the cheapest that I can get (yup, I shopped around). I don't need premium gas. 

 So I've decided to keep this car looking at new as possible, and will drive it for a few more years... who knows maybe even hit another 100k on it. 

P.S. it feels so good to not have a monthly car payment.